Meeder Advisory Services Inc. Increases Position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 2.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 12,351 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 241 shares during the period. Meeder Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $3,418,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ADP. Tower Wealth Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Tower Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 1,054 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,742 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $482,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,902,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 5,698 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,360,000 after buying an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Austin Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC now owns 923 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. 80.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Automatic Data Processing Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ADP opened at $298.48 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $287.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $264.14. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 12 month low of $227.12 and a 12 month high of $309.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $121.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.79.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $4.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.77 billion. Automatic Data Processing had a net margin of 19.72% and a return on equity of 82.36%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.08 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $1.54 dividend. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This is a positive change from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. Automatic Data Processing’s payout ratio is currently 65.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Carlos A. Rodriguez sold 9,203 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.45, for a total value of $2,479,748.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 36,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,899,862.45. This represents a 20.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP David Kwon sold 846 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.60, for a total transaction of $228,927.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,410 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,816,946. This trade represents a 7.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 97,792 shares of company stock valued at $27,691,708. Insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup increased their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $276.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $271.00 to $287.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Automatic Data Processing currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Profile

Automatic Data Processing, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions.